‘Lovewear’ Sex Aid Embraces Inclusive Design and Hi-tech Touch

SexForEveryBody.com is supported by our readers. We may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more.

Innovative garment manufacturer Witsense, an already-established brand known for its clothing designed for disabled people, has announced the development of a new product line: Lovewear.

The new line integrates soft robotics, wireless communication, and what’s described as a “console” pillow. The goal behind this state-of-the-art undergarment is to enable people with limited mobility to self-pleasure in a comfortable and sensual manner.

Lovewear is a collaborative effort between Emanuela Corti and Ivan Parati, wearable tech designers with experience in inclusive design.

“While working on projects dealing with disability, we came across difficulties related to sexuality and realized that it was a theme that we wanted to explore,” Corti told Sex for Every Body.

“We soon realized that Lovewear could be used by anyone who wants to explore intimacy from a different perspective, while giving more benefits to movement-impaired people.”

More than merely sex tech

Lovewear is an undergarment that, via a smartphone app, connects with that “console” pillow.  

Equipped with sensors, when caressed, stroked, or squeezed, the pillow transmits those sensations to the paired Lovewear underwear, which reproduces them through a series of air-filled bladders.

This sets Lovewear way ahead of most mainstream sex toys. And while many may be pleasurable in their own right, their mechanical workings can often feel less natural when measured against actual human touch.

Lovewear, on the other hand, plans to take a page from soft robotics, using its solitary motorized component to add or release air to those bladders. 

Though not a stand-in for actual physical contact with another person, Lovewear’s technology likely feels much more lifelike than if it had used motors directly.

The design process

In the early phase of the project, the Lovewear team consulted with Max Ulivieri of LoveGiver, an Italian organization that advocates for sexual assistance for people with disabilities

He put Corti in touch with LoveGiver board member Dr. Paola Tomasello, a psychologist and sexologist who helped create a questionnaire for feedback on design needs.

Ulivieri also shared vital feedback on the importance of human touch.

“One of his first comments has been: make sure to say that your product does not replace human contact! And we obviously totally agree! Lovewear is a cognitive tool that could be used independently, with a partner, or could support a carer or a surrogate partner,” Corti said.

Yet Corti doesn’t underplay the significance of making self-intimacy and sexual exploration more accessible.

“Disabled sexuality is often neglected to release carer and families from uncomfortable responsibilities, which pose moral and ethical questions,” she said.

“Whether the individual is deprived from its natural appetite or its emotional and sentimental implications, what is really missing is the self-consciousness and the awareness towards the own body.”

Ease of touch, pleasure of contact

For those with limited mobility or any conditions that make sustained contact with their genitalia challenging, Lovewear is an exciting development.

This is equally evident in Witsense’s other projects. Senseme, a shirt that, via a set of sensors, sends breathing rate and movement data to a smartphone app that then adjusts the garment.

So, too, with Pumpme—which could be considered an antecedent to Lovewear, as it inflates or deflates automatically or whenever the wearer wants it to.

The Lovewear line is currently in the development phase with no foreseeable launch date in the immediate future.

The most challenging part of the process is the micro integration of all the components that need to be inserted into the wearable textile, added Cori.

Thinking about everyone’s desires

Despite all these experiments and Witsense working to move Lovewear from concept into an actual, purchasable product, Corti and her team are clear that these and everything else they are working on shouldn’t be considered exclusively for disabled people.

As I’ve written previously, getting older has made me wish products like those from Witsense were feely available bothoday, with my arthritis pain and decreased mobility, as well as whenI was younger  They might have added a great deal more pleasure and comfort  to my sexual and sensual activities.

There’s also the idea that if they’d been around when I was younger, I and so many others dealing with incipent physical concerns could have reduced or possibly aided in eliminating them altogether. 

Then, when I was a lonely young man, and particularly now, during these days of social isolation, Lovewear would be a unique way to experience something akin to that most intimate—and human—of touches: a welcoming and supportive hug.

The universality of pleasure

Forgive me if this sounds trite, but researching Lovewear and all the talented and conscientious minds behind it, a phrase kept coming to mind: that we’re all deserving of pleasure.

Because here is a device that elegantly demonstrates the simple truth that we all need and deserve to enjoy ourselves. Hopefully, Witsense, along with similar companies and researchers, will help us to accept and celebrate that, no matter our limitations, we all have this in common.

Image credits: Re-FREAM